Jose Mourinho will is set to drop his centre-backs following a poor defensive display against Newcastle United.

The Red Devils lost at St James’ Park on Sunday to get sucked back into the battle for a top-four berth, with Chris Smalling and Phil Jones singled out for their poor performances. Smalling dived to give away the free-kick from which Newcastle scored. And now The Daily Mirror claim Mourinho’s misgivings about the duo started long before the defeat to Newcastle and he will ditch them for the FA Cup.

In their place, Mourinho will give Victor Lindelof and Marcos Rojo the chance to impress in Saturday’s match against Huddersfield, and it could be a permanent change.

Mourinho has called on the United board to follow the examples of rivals Man City and Liverpool, who both broke their transfer records to sign Aymeric Laporte and Virgil van Dijk respectively.